Drax240z

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=84860

My question, why the heck are your interest rates so high? I thought US interest rates were dropping like a rock, much like ours. I'm at 1.75% on mine at the moment, which is abnormally low, but more than 4.5% sounds like a lot to me right now.

Well got a bit more done over the long weekend, not a lot for pics mind you. Engine finally assembled New engine into car Refinished strut towers to seal them up All in all things took a lot longer than I expected, but most of that can be attributed to the lack of a real shop, and the time required for cleaning. Now starts the fab work and mockup, for the wastegate and new downpipe. Painting and cleaning everything... takes a lot of time. I guess this is what happens when you leave a belt on too long...

I have a 2.5" mandrel bent downpipe I'd part with, it's not looking awesome at the moment, but a shot of BBQ paint would help it out a lot. PM me if you are interested.

Happy Birthday Pete - I still relish in the claim to fame that the taillights that were on my Z are on yours. Woo, I'm famous!

Heh, http://drax240z.mybrute.com

I applaud your experimentation, looking forwards to the feedback.

Looks good, can't wait to see the progress shots once it gets put together and under some natural light!

Other option if you aren't going to re-use the strut cartridge is use a slide hammer on the end of the shaft to pull it out. You may have to use Johns methods at the same time as the slide hammer if it's really rusted in there...

:mrgreen: Start shoveling snow and post up some pics!

Haha, here is mine right now. I'll update in a few more days.

It a bit deceiving because the PO of the wheels had 225/50R16's on all 4 wheels, major stretch going on. The proper sized tire wouldn't fit under the stock fenders quite so easily.

3pc Simmons racing wheels, 16x9" front, 16x10" rear. No I don't run stretched tires, these tires were on there for mockup only. These wheels also happen to be for sale, check it out here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=146967

Well, didn't quite make the intended goal. Ran into more cleaning and prep work doing the new motor than expected, which set me back a bit. Tomorrow should be a productive day though. I found out putting the wire in an O-ringed block is a very frustrating process however.

I can appreciate your idea, but these guys are right... it's not an easy path, and done poorly it could be detrimental to your handling even with the bigger rubber. In the end, it would probably be a cheaper, easier and probably better solution to run coilovers and flares, and get your 315's in that way.

Well I've been working like a demon the last couple of days, and making decent progress. My goal of getting the car on the road by Monday doesn't appear to be likely however, apparently my wife wants to do the Easter dinner thing, and we're supposed to host. I just assumed it was a 6 day weekend without an actual holiday in the middle. The car as it sat yesterday morning... Basically how it has been sitting for 2+ years, except now it's under cover for the first time. Wednesday was spent assembling the head, new "special" cam (LOL), valve lapping, checking wipe patterns, fixing a broken spray bar, deburring, cleaning etc. I had this head machined a while ago (it's a P90) an put on about 20,000km before swapping for the N42 on the previous engine incarnation. I did that mostly to bump compression to the 8.3:1 area, but the new setup will be 8.5:1 with a P90. HKS wastegate, and some general fab stuff for downpipes, WG dumps, etc. Love those 304SS sanitary bends!!! Polished inside and out. General flanges and merryment... 3" Sanitary bend... may be part of my new downpipe system, but my turbo outlet is only 2.5" so I may go another, similar route in 2.5". Shiny and new... T3/T4E, 50 trim, 0.63 AR, stage 3 wheel, 360° thrust... The car as it sat 5 hours later... Another pair of hands would have made things go a bit faster, as would a level concrete pad! What's that under the orange garbage bag behind the car? We'll see soon... As you can see, I've got some work to do before the new motor goes in. Todays task is to have the new motor in the hole though. More to come!

Are you using a pump designed to be an internal or external? If you are using an internal Walbro mounted externally, it will overheat and die on you, its just a matter of time.

A bit more news, turbo shipped today, should see it soon. Spent last night disassembling P90 and E31 heads to build my new one. Hoping to start head assembly tonight. Sounds like the shortblock is getting out of machine shop jail tomorrow, but we'll see if that happens or not. Once the turbo arrives, I am going to start making downpipe and wastegate plumbing. With 6 days off in a row starting tomorrow, the timing could be very good... watch this space!

Well here we go again. Bottom end is still in machine shop jail, but, I actually ordered a turbo yesterday. Went a little cheaper than the original plan however. Pretty standard: T3/T4e - 50 trim, 0.63A/R, 360° thrust bushing, stage 3 wheel. Also have new JE piston pins a week away, got sleeves for the crower rods, which have also been resized, pistons have had the dome machined to yield a 8.45:1 compression ratio, new bearings are in as well... 11 weeks to go until B-day... need to have the engine in before then!

Well, lots of bad news about the engine parts I purchased off a member here. The Crower rods are in need of resizing on the large end due to physical damage to the rod. Should clean up with some machining work. The small ends are shot and need to be bushed, more cash... what can I say. Block came out ok, except for the crack at the oil pan which was welded poorly, but can be fixed. The crank has both mains and rod journals ground undersized, but the 'package' contained standard sized bearings, so those are useless to me. Pistons were unknown compression ratio when I bought them, and after cc'ing the domes they are way too much, so I am having the domes machined almost off. With all this there needs to be some rebalancing obviously as well. A lot of extra expense, probably as much as I paid for these crappy parts to begin with. I'm certainly (sadly) going to be unlikely to buy used parts off the web again, but I took that risk, so I will live with it. On the bright side, once I have way too much money into this bottom end, it should be very, very good. No idea yet when the machine shop will get to it... My goals of having this done and on the road before this summer seem in jeopardy, which means the 2-3 years the car has been sitting will probably sit another 2-3 years... (first kid due this summer) Annoying, and nothing I have time to deal with. Still pondering legal action against the seller for misrepresentation of the parts being sold. Biggest lesson in all this is that it would have been cheaper for me to buy all new parts if I had done so in the beginning, and I wouldn't have any of these issues at this point.

Crap 9 years.... and I'm still not done my car. Happy Birthday Hybridz!

I'm impressed that a fairly young guy without a ton of automotive knowledge could sit down and build himself an atom on the cheap, using many scrap parts, (including an old kayak for the front bodywork) and have it come out so good. He did it in a very short timeframe as I remember. (6 months?) I wouldn't that concerned about side impact, those main tubes are pretty darn beefy. A Z puts the driver in similar amounts danger in a side impact IMHO, you just fleet more protected because there is sheetmetal and glass "protecting" you.

http://www.locostusa.com He's a regular over there, as was I for a bit! Lots of interesting projects on that board.

LOL john!

I ran DOT legal race rubber on the street for quite a long time with no problems. I was running the Yokohama A032's. Surprisingly good wear on the street, wet weather traction was good, and I didn't have to load up the rear of the car with an extra set of wheels every time I went to the track. I was probably doing about 10,000km a year or so plus 15-20 autocrosses on a set. I would look for something along those lines if I was in a similar circumstance again.